Книга-альбом на английском языке рассказывает о творчестве русского художника Михаила Врубеля. Содержит репродукции картин, образцы декоративных, скульптурных работ и книжных иллюстраций, а также элементов театрального оформления.

Издание написано авторским коллективом по руководством Михаила Гуермана.

Описание основных вех творчества Михаила Врубеля, которые нашли отражение в содержании книги, представлено на английском языке:

Mikhail Vrubel (1856 – 1910) as an artist always strove to capture the essence of life, to grasp its philosophical meaning, and to determine Man’s place in the universe. Vrubel strove to revive monumental painting, to return to the grandeur of Renaissance art, and to unite the high-strung spirituality of his time, full of contradictions as it was, with profound meditations of the eternal questions of Good, Evil and Truth. He found inspiration in the imagery of the Russian epos, Romantic poetry, and classical antiquity; his heroes were derived from works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Goethe and France. He paid tribute to both Symbolism and Art Nouveau.

In fact, he created a whole world of unusual spiritual intensity and passionate yearning for some ideal harmony that he failed to attain. Tormented by constant dissatisfaction, Vrubel never created the ultimate, great work, of which he dreamed throughout his artistic career, but his quest yielded many remarkable paintings, which, so amply offered here to foreign readers for the first time, reveal Vrubel’s unique position in world culture of the turn of the century.

The book has been compiled by the eminent scholar Mikhail Guerman, Doctor of Arts.